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| May 13, 2008 |
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Bringing Jesus to othersJubilee”themed conference highlights the important role of extraordinary ministers of holy Communion. Published: 05.02.08 
ANA RODRIGUEZ-SOTO | FC MIAMI | For 15 years, Kathy McIsaac has been taking Communion to the sick. Every Sunday she visits them, either in their homes, in nursing homes or in the hospital. “I tell my shut-ins, ‘I’m going to get the Communion during the Mass.’ When I get my Communion, I get theirs, so they’ll feel like they’re part of that Mass,” said McIsaac, a parishioner at St. Thomas the Apostle in South Miami. Her ministry – and that of thousands of others throughout the archdiocese – was highlighted April 19 during a jubilee day for extraordinary ministers of holy Communion at St. John Vianney College Seminary in Miami. More than 250 people attended the half-day conference, the first time in years that so many extraordinary ministers had gathered in one place. “The whole idea is to bring people from around the archdiocese to be renewed in their ministry,” said Msgr. Terence Hogan, rector of St. Mary Cathedral and director of the Office of Worship. The office conducts training sessions throughout the year for those who wish to serve as extraordinary ministers of holy Communion in their parishes. Msgr. Hogan described their work as “extremely important. Fifty years ago, when the archdiocese first started, it was the priest who brought Communion. Now he’s assisted by laypeople and religious. It’s a sign of the rich ministries of the church.” It’s also “the greatest gift that you can give someone – to bring Jesus to people,” Msgr. Hogan said. “It truly is a blessing to serve God (this way),” said Elsa Hernandez, one of about 90 extraordinary ministers of holy Communion from St. Agatha Parish in Miami who attended the gathering. She has been bringing Communion to the sick for 14 years in south Florida, and five years before that when she lived in South Carolina. “Every time we give Communion to someone, we see Jesus Christ before us,” Hernandez said. But she added that Catholics as a whole need to be more educated regarding the reality of what they are doing when they receive Communion. “We appreciate it when we’re in church. But many people forget about it once they step out of the church. We need to be more aware,” Hernandez said. That was a point emphasized by the speakers at the conference: Father James Fetscher, pastor of St. Louis Parish in Pinecrest, who spoke in English, and Father Pedro Corces, pastor of St. Katharine Drexel Parish in Weston, who spoke in Spanish. “What a unique mystery we have in centering our lives in the Eucharist,” said Father Fetscher, who based his talk on Pope Benedict XVI’s post-synodal exhortation on the Eucharist, “Sacramentum Caritatis” (“Sacrament of Charity”). He said the pope’s document “really challenges you to take the time to get into understanding who the person of Jesus is in the Eucharist.” It also challenges Catholics to realize that “we are Christ” and to think about, “How do we become Christ in the worlds in which we live?” In a sense, “Everybody is a eucharistic minister,” Father Fetscher said. But extraordinary ministers of holy Communion go a step further. “It’s a ministry of the gathered to the scattered. Let no person in the diocese be without Communion if they want it.” McIsaac agreed. “I thirst for the Lord. I believe everybody who asks me (for Communion) has that same thirst.”
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